RAID

Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of saving content on a number of hard disk drives at the same time. A RAID can be software or hardware depending on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, yet what is common between them is the fact that they all operate as one single unit where data is saved. The top advantage of using a RAID is redundancy because the data on all the drives will be exactly the same all the time, so even if a drive fails for some reason, the information will still be present on the remaining drives. The overall performance is also better because the reading and writing processes could be split between various drives, so a single one can't be overloaded. There are different types of RAIDs where the efficiency and fault tolerance may differ depending on the particular setup - whether info is written on all the drives in real time or it is written on one drive and afterwards mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, and so on.

RAID in Hosting

The hard drives that we employ for storage with our outstanding cloud hosting platform are not the classic HDDs, but quick solid-state drives (SSD). They work in RAID-Z - a special setup intended for the ZFS file system that we employ. All of the content that you add to your hosting account will be held on multiple hard disks and at least one will be used as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an extra bit is included to any content copied on it. If a disk in the RAID stops working, it'll be replaced without any service disruptions and the information will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits using the data on the parity disk plus that on the other disks. This is done to ensure the integrity of the data and together with the real-time checksum validation which the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you won't ever need to concern yourself with the loss of any data no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The SSD drives which are used for storing any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts which we offer function in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data cloned on this kind of a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what information will be duplicated on the latter shall be a combination calculated between the data on the other drives and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the data on the new drive will be correct. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the faulty drive will not impact the normal operation of your websites in any respect. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is a fantastic addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our advanced cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses specific digital identifiers referred to as checksums to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

The physical servers where we make VPS server work with high-speed SSD drives which will boost the speed of your websites substantially. The disk drives operate in RAID to guarantee that you won't lose any information as a result of a power loss or a hardware malfunction. The production servers employ a variety of drives where the data is kept and one disk is used for parity i.e. one bit is added to all data copied on it, that makes it easier to restore the site content without any loss if a main drive stops working. If you use our backup service, the information will be kept on an individual machine which uses standard hard-disk drives and although there isn't a parity one in this case, they are also in a RAID to make sure that we will have a backup of your content all of the time. With this particular setup your info will always be safe as it will be available on a lot of drives.